1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus for handling mail in postal facilities and, more particularly, to a mail carrier device for providing reduced handling of flat mail at postal facilities while supporting both manual and automated mail processing.
2. Description of Related Art
The United States Postal Service (USPS) allows the mailing industry to prepare mail in a number of formats and sequences. Typically, flat mail is prepared in bundles. Bundles are created to allow mail that is destined for the same carrier route or zoned to be processed concurrently. There are a number of preparation schemes that mailers can use, and each scheme has a mailing cost associated with it.
The following is an example of some of the various ways mailers can prepare bundles of flats mail: (a) 3-digit mail—where all mail in the bundle, or mailing, is going to a 3-digit postal zone. This refers to the first three digits of a zip code, e.g., 210xx. The mail within the bundle will be distributed to a number of facilities in carrier routes within that zone; (b) 5-digit mail—where all mail within the bundle is going to a 5-digit zone. Most likely, the mail within the bundle will be distributed within a single post office delivery unit, e.g., 21076 which is the zip code for the post office in Hanover, Md., U.S.A.; (c) Carrier route mail where a carrier route number contains mail for a specific carrier within a 5-digit zone; and, (d) Line-of-travel (LOT) and/or carrier sequenced mail where bundles of LOT or carrier sequence mail have been prepared such that the mail within the bundles is in a sequence for a specific carrier within a zone. LOT mail contains mail in either ascending or descending order for addresses on streets in a close proximation of how the carrier actually will deliver the mail. Carrier sequence mail is prepared in exactly the sequence that the carrier delivers the mail.
Each of the above-mentioned preparation standards are processed differently and has an associated processing cost. 3-digit mail is usually cross-docked through postal facilities as a bundle until it arrives at the processing center that serves the 3-digit zone. The bundle is then opened and processed to a 5-digit level and delivered to the Post Office that serves that 5-digit zone. 5-digit bundles are cross-docked all the way to the processing center that serves the 5-digit zone. Depending on the processing center operations, the bundle may be delivered to the local Post Office that delivers the mail or may be processed then to a carrier level where the mail is separated to the carrier within the delivery office without the need for separation. Carrier route, LOT and carrier sequence mail are all cross-docked directly to the local Post Office that delivers the mail.
In all cases, the local carrier then sequences or “cases” the mail for delivery wherein the mail is ordered in the sequence that the carrier will deliver on his/her route. These mailing standards and incentives are based on a large part on the principle that the carrier will case mail at the delivery unit and the mail has been tailored to account for automation and mechanization used in postal facilities to route the mail through the postal network.
Recently, automation capabilities have been introduced into postal networks that have enabled the application of new paradigms. Specifically, the use of high speed flats automation and the development of automated sequence equipment have enabled the USPS to consider moving the majority of delivery unit mail handling into the processing centers remote from the local delivery office. In this new paradigm, mail would be processed to either carrier level or completely sequenced at carrier level before it arrives at the local delivery office. This approach removes the majority of manual labor currently involved in preparing the mail for delivery and thus allow the delivery offices to run more efficiently.
In parallel with these developments, the use of high speed automation has increased the demand of mail on system feeders. The USPS Automated Flat Sorting Machine 100 (AFSM 100) has three high-speed feeders which output 7200 pieces of mail per hour. Operation experience has shown that this demand is challenging for operators to meet. The operators are required to place approximately 12 inches of mail onto a feeder per minute. Mail must also be placed in proper orientation, with the binding down and the mailing label facing the right and “groom” the mail to ensure proper system operation. In order to reduce the requirements on feeder operators, USPS prepares mail for processing on this machinery. Typically, flats mail bundles are opened where they are strapped and/or shrink-wrapped and placed in carts in an orientation with binding and labels all facing the same directions. This frees system operators from the task of unbundling and orienting mail during feeding operations. While this set of tasks does not allow operators to keep pace with the system demands, it does introduce additional cost to the overall operation.
The next generation of flats mail processing equipment will run at approximately twice the speed of the current state of the art, i.e., 10,000–12,000 pieces per hour for each feeder. These systems will run faster than operators can manually feed them. These speeds are necessary to provide a required through-put to enable multi-high passing sequencing. The approximate, effective through-put of a multi-pass system is the running through-put divided by the number of passes. Currently, two-pass, multi feeder operations are being developed to sequence flat mail. Higher through-puts are required on these multi-pass systems to enable them to process, i.e. case the mail within the delivery time constraints for the various mail classes. Effectively, this requires the systems to run faster than operators can manually load systems within the current operational and technological constraints. This also creates an elevated requirement for mail preparation, i.e., the mail must be prepared faster. Because these preparation operations are manually intensive, this creates additional costs in the overall cost of operation offsetting a portion of the savings created by the processing/sequencing operations.